Consumers' Perception towards Organic Farming.

In our days, modern consumers are more preoccupied by issues related to food ethics and a sustainable consumption, mainly because of the various possibilities of gathering information of how it is produced, leading to question the conventional agriculture in favor of the organic farming and organic agriculture and organic products seem to meet their needs, as health attributes became almost more and more important. The aim of this present study was to highlight the consumer's perception towards organic farming within the North-West Development Region of Romania, by using a survey based on questionnaire, applied on a sample of 420 respondents. The collected and analyzed data can be organized into three main categories: socio-demographic characteristics, perception about organic agriculture, and perception about organic products. The descriptive statistics and chi-square were used to analyze the data. The sample consists in 33.6% female consumers, and 66.4% male consumers. The age distribution was relatively uniform between the age categories of 30-59 while only 9.3% of respondents aged over 60 years. Regarding the educational leval of the respondents, most of them graduated high school, while only 1% had no studies. The study revealed that there was an influence between the respondent's socio-demographic profile and their perception towards organic agriculture. Regarding the gender, it seems that the vast majority of respondents who agreed that organic agriculture protects the environment, and disagreed with the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in organic farming, ware of male gender. In what concerns the educational level, it can be noticed that the respondents with a higher education level (at least high school) disagreed with using chemical fertilizers and pesticides in organic farming, and with the statement that organic agriculture can be sufficient to ensure the necessary of agricultural products nationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]